“Nature connects to sort out other problems.”

(Photo: Made Creative/Marie De Decker)

What motivated you to participate in the Caribou training?

I enjoy always those moments when you meet new people—to sit together with new people you didn’t know the minute before, you’re discovering them. That’s true in this type of all-day, off-site training, because it creates a framework where communication and friendship and relations can build up

What aspect of the training did you find most valuable?

In Caribou training, you’re meeting various people from different communities and scopes of interest, and you’re meeting up over 2 days. We also spent time together outdoors and for dinner, lunch, breaks, so it really helped to extend my network. That sense of community is also something that should be realized as a valuable part of the training. Not all trainings are like that. With product training or technology training there is a skill being trained and everyone has the same profile. That’s not true of the Caribou training, it’s really an opportunity for various people to come together and discover community from a different angle. This is how I felt, and I found that highly interesting.
 
What did you learn about nature connectedness during the course?

I don’t know if I was as conscious as I am today that the connection to nature can help with a business or organisation—that the different framework can help to bring people together and balance things in business organisations. That could be a common denominator, that nature connects to sort out other problems, issues, and weaknesses. That’s perhaps the reason why I still strongly believe in supporting this kind of training for organisations.

I also think that the combination of an academic framework on one side and a more natural connection to the long-term vision of circular economy and climate change topics is well-done in that training. This is interesting, but you need to have an openness to that from the beginning.

How do you think this training can impact leaders?

It helps you to reflect on yourself—just look at that moment where you will need to sit for two hours without a watch or mobile phone in the middle of the forest and look at nature. In the beginning of the training, you think about what happened the morning before, but if you’re sitting there for 2 hours you start to think about yourself. You’re not looking at the emails or messages every second, and you’re thinking, “How can I use that for my organisation?” That’s the goal of all leaders, you want to gain more efficiency, productivity and performance by any means, and if this can help you, you will use it.